Kellen SmetanaLast week we rode through the town of Taiping en route to Yangshuo. Needing dinner and breakfast, we found a supermarket to visit before passing on. A quick stop, Ben dashed in to get the goods; I stood out front in the sidewalk, holding the two bikes.

After about a minute, a man came out of the store carrying his bare-bottomed child in front of him. As the baby’s pants were already down, a quick lift of the legs up to the head and he was ready. The man stopped less than two feet in front of my tire and the boy began to pee all over the busy sidewalk. Simultaneously amazed at the early age of potty-training in China, the audacity of this shot across my bow, and the general acceptance of public urination in such a busy place, I decided to survey the crowd to gather their reactions.

Out of roughly forty people in immediate view, five were yammering away on cell phones, five were generally minding their own business, zero were watching the human Supersoaker, thirty had their eyes set on me! Just then Ben came out of the supermarket, “Dude, two cashiers followed me around this time…” So is the life of a traveling cyclist. I shouldn’t have been surprised; we have been experiencing this most days here and it will likely continue. Children laugh or shout “hallo,” adolescents snap photos or ask to pose with us in their favorite thumbs-up/peace-sign photo, adults often stare or occasionally approach to assess the specifics of the bikes and gear, and if we get any reaction from the elderly, it is usually a seemingly unpleasant muttering and general shooing along. The most fun time of day is definitely around 4pm, just as all the kids get out of school. They run alongside us and giggle to themselves as we butcher “ni hao” and give a smile.

High-fives all around

As with anything, we get used to it. I can now tune out the Lady Gaga level of attention as we pass through the big towns; it probably even makes good practice for public speaking (I’m getting work training even in rural China!). We really notice it here because we already stand out like two sore thumbs, but I don’t think it would be any different in the US. I remember getting honked at cycling through Detroit earlier this year. And to put it into perspective, I imagined a couple Moroccans hauling across America in a suped-up big-rig – I bet they’d drop some jaws…

Capturing a piece of what's circulating the internet somewhere

Unique to China or not, it’s certainly a memorable part of the experience. So if anyone out there is jonesing for some attention, throw a couple bags on your bike and hit the road… it will be sure to find you.